I spent way too long getting the placement right on my helix piercing last week. Clamped it, marked it, unclamped, reclamped like 4 times before I gave up and just went for it. Ended up a little crooked but not too bad. How do you guys nail the angle on ear piercings without a second pair of hands?
Was stuck at 8g for like three months and nothing felt right. Tapers hurt too much, tape kept getting grody. Friend's girlfriend who does piercings at a shop told me to wrap some unwaxed floss around a smaller plug and gradually add layers. Cleaned it with alcohol every time. Took about two weeks to go from 8g to 6g with zero pain or blowouts. Has anyone else tried using weird household stuff for stretching that actually worked?
I did a little star design on my inner ankle using India ink and a sewing needle, real careful about sterilization. It looked great for like 3 days, super crisp and dark. Then by day 7 it was barely visible, like a light grey smudge. I'm honestly surprised at how much ink just fell out during healing. Has anyone else had a stick and poke fade that much or did I just do something wrong?
I was about to do a stick and poke on myself with a sewing needle and pen ink last week. Then my buddy who works at a tattoo shop showed me pics of a guy who did that and got a staph infection. The guy needed antibiotics for 3 weeks and still has a scar. Turns out proper tattoo needles are sterilized and single use for a reason. Anyone here ever tried using real tattoo supplies instead of homemade stuff?
I thought I'd save cash and DIY my second lobe piercing at home with one of those $80 kits. The gun jammed halfway through, left a nasty crooked hole that got infected 3 days later. Had to go to a real piercer who charged me $50 to fix it with a needle. Has anyone else gotten burned by those cheap gun kits?
I tried doing a simple line design on my thigh with a machine kit from a friend, but the needle depth was all over the place. After 45 minutes of shaky lines and a blown out section near my knee, I switched to stick and poke with a 5RL needle. It took 3 hours instead of 1, but the lines came out way cleaner and I could control the depth way easier. Has anyone else had better luck with one method for small, detailed work?
I started doing stick and poke tattoos on myself about 3 years ago because I was too scared of a machine. My first few looked like a 5 year old drew on me but they healed super clean with almost no scarring. Then last summer I tried a cheap tattoo machine from Amazon and the lines came out way sharper but I got some infection around one of them even though I sanitized everything the same. My friend swears by stick and poke for shading but another buddy says machine is the only way for fine lines. What method do you think gives better results in the long run? I'm thinking about doing a big piece on my thigh but stuck on which tool to use. Has anyone else noticed one method heals smoother than the other?
I've done maybe 10 scarification pieces on myself over the years, nothing too wild. Last Wednesday I decided to try a geometric line pattern on my forearm using a scalpel. I prepped everything clean, marked it out with a sharpie, and went for it. The lines came out uneven and one spot got irritated bad by Friday, had to switch to a wet healing method instead of dry. Has anyone else had luck with geometric scar patterns, or is it just me who ends up with a mess?
I've been doing my own piercings for about two years now, mostly ears and a couple nostrils. Last week I finally hit 15 total after doing a second helix on my right ear. What surprised me was reading on a piercing forum that cartilage piercings actually heal from the outside in, not the inside out like I always assumed. I found this fact in a comment from a retired piercer who broke down the whole healing process. It explained why my ear kept getting crusty on the surface even when it felt fine underneath. I used a 16g titanium flatback labret from a shop online, and it went in smooth with hardly any pain. Has anyone else run into healing info that completely changed how you care for your mods?
I did my own tongue split in my bathroom in Portland about 2 years ago. The bleeding was BAD for the first 10 minutes, I thought I was gonna pass out. But I had watched like 20 tutorials and bought a proper surgical kit online. I numbed it with ice and lidocaine gel, used curved hemostats, and did it in 3 passes with a sterile scalpel. One of the sutures popped loose on day 4 and I had to redo it in my kitchen mirror at 2am. It healed fine. The swelling was gone after a week. Everyone on this sub told me I was gonna get an infection or sever a nerve, but my dentist actually complimented the symmetry at a checkup last month. Has anyone else here actually DONE a tongue split themselves or are yall just repeating what you read?
I did a stick and poke on my palm about a month ago. Every guide online says palm tattoos heal in like 2 weeks tops because the skin is thick. Mine was still peeling and scabby at 3 weeks. I used proper ink, kept it clean, did aftercare right. Now it's faded way more than I expected too. Did I just pick a bad spot or is the online advice full of crap? Anyone else have palm mods take way longer than expected?
After about 15 tries over 2 years, I finally had a tattoo on my ankle not get infected or blow out. Used a 5RL needle, India ink from the art store, and sterilized everything with 91% alcohol. The lines stayed crisp and the redness went away in 3 days flat. Has anyone else had a random good week like that where everything just clicked?
I was all about using a machine for my DIY tattoos, did maybe 8 of them on myself over 2 years. Then I tried a stick and poke on my ankle using just a sewing needle and India ink, and the healing was so much smoother. No blowouts, no shaky lines, just clean dots. The machine gave me this weird blurry line on my forearm that still bugs me. Has anyone else switched methods after a bad experience with one or the other?
I bought some "premium" black ink off Amazon for $12, thought I was saving money. After 3 days my homemade tattoo got super red and started oozing yellow stuff. Went to urgent care and the doc said it was infected from cheap metals in the ink. Stick with branded stuff from real tattoo shops even if it costs $25 a bottle, please don't learn the hard way like me. Has anyone else gotten burned by fake ink online?
I stretched my septum from 14g to 12g after only 3 weeks using a cheap taper from Amazon. It healed fine but the smell was AWFUL for a month and my nose got super crusty. Now I'm wondering if waiting the full 6-8 weeks would have made a difference or if the material mattered more. Has anyone else pushed it too fast and regretted it?
Ordered one of those cheap rotary tattoo kits off Prime last month thinking I could save cash. The motor burned out after my second practice line on a grapefruit, and the needles were so dull they shredded the skin instead of piercing clean. Anyone else have luck with a specific budget setup that actually works?
Bought my first stick and poke set in 2015, just india ink and a sewing needle. Now I see kids using actual tattoo needles and ink from Amazon. Kinda wild how much safer it got in 10 years, have you noticed the same change?
I did a scarification piece on my forearm about 6 months ago, and I thought I knew what I was doing. I did two passes with a scalpel in one session because I was impatient and wanted it to pop. At first it looked fine but after it healed the lines got all blown out and fuzzy looking. The second cut irritated the first one so bad that the scar tissue grew uneven and lumpy. My buddy who does this stuff told me you have to wait at least 4 to 6 weeks between passes for the skin to settle. Now I got this mess that looks nothing like the clean design I wanted. Anyone else here rush a session and regret it later? How did you fix it or cover it up?
Did a stick and poke on my ankle at Mike's apartment in Austin last summer. Figured boiling the needle for 10 minutes was good enough but got a nasty red streak up my leg three days later. Anyone else skip proper sterilization and pay for it later?
After I boiled my needle for 15 minutes and still got a little infection, I switched to 70% isopropyl alcohol and a fresh setup and had zero issues since.
I was sitting on my bathroom floor in Austin last night, trying to push a 14g needle through my upper cartilage for a third piercing. The needle bent halfway through and I had to stop because I couldn't get it to go straight anymore. Has anyone else had a needle snap or bend mid-pierce, or did I just pick a cheap brand?
I did my tongue split about 6 weeks ago with a friend in her kitchen. Read online that it's too risky for DIY but we followed a guide from a mod forum step by step. Was scared it'd heal crooked but it's straight and I can actually move both sides separate now. Haven't had anyone notice yet in public and lowkey wondering if I should be more open about it. Anyone else do a tongue split and have trouble eating certain foods after it healed?
I was at a convention in Portland last Saturday and this dude with a full sleeve of machine work said stick and poke isn't real tattooing. I've been doing hand pokes for 3 years and my shading is cleaner than half the coils I see. Why do people treat a method like a skill level?